Saturday, February 25, 2006

So the other day Zydeco Fish posted one of his paintings. So I thought I'd copy him and post my most recent masterpiece.

I call it "Wait" Please don't bother about the title. Just enjoy the nice long red hair. Yeah, that's my favourite part too.

Anyway, just to further copy Zydeco Fish, I'll post my results from this quiz we both did. I'm going to die at 82. FYI, Zydeco's will die at 84, and since he's a bit older that me, I'll still be around. I was hoping I'd hit a hundred though. Oh well, more green veggies for me. I'll take the test again one day after I've eaten some spinach.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Here is Yoplait's response to my e-mail (see previous post). I actually think their e-mail is more hilarious than mine.

Dear Mrs Filipowicz,

We acknowledge receipt of your comments concerning the Yoplait Creamy commercial, and we would like to thank you for the interest you have shown in Yoplait’s products.

Actually I wasn't really interested in their products at all. In fact, I recall saying I was boycotting them. but moving on:Please be assured that your comments have been sent to our marketing department for our constant revaluation of our publicity.

Ooooo! Maybe I'll get an e-mail from the marketing boys.

We enjoy receiving your comments and encourage your feedback on our products. Please understand that we cannot accept suggestions for new products, advertising, promotions, etc. from persons outside our organisation. This is necessary to prevent any misunderstandings as to the origin of ideas.Just remember that is was my idea to take the ad of hell off the air. So when they finally do, I think Yoplait will owe me some money.

Once again, thank you for your comments and please be assured that Yoplait is continuously working to be the first to offer consumers innovative products of the highest quality.

Sincerely yours,Marie-France LaurinConsumer serviceYOPLAIT

Actually, Marie, I really didn't take issue with your products at all. The yogurt is fine, I'm just boycotting it on principle.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

I sent this e-mail to Yoplait in response to that irritating commercial. If you haven't seen it, how nice for you. I forgot to say that I wish I was in the grocery store with the yoplait creamy guy, so I could throw a cantaloupe at him.

Dear Yoplait,This is concerning your television commercial for yoplait creamy, which runs during coverage of the Olympic games. Congratulations. You have succeeded in creating the most annoying advertisement of all time. If I had never heard the words "Yum! Yum! Yum!" uttered in that fingers-on-the-blackboard, Satan-as-a-chipmunk voice, I would be a much happier person right now. I might even be eating a yoplait product. Unfortunately, the severe irritation from your ad has lead me to boycott all yoplait products until such time as they don't remind me of that hideous use of airtime.

Sincerely,Jennifer Filipowicz

Today on the subway I saw a half-naked guy wearing a Santa Claus hat. He was yelling "Hey girls! Check this out!" If he was in the same car as me it would have been creepy, but he wasn't, so it was funny. Clearly the guy was nuts. I mean, a Santa hat in the middle of February?

Today's Parent has given me something to write. A 200ish-word article about lice. And they're going to pay me too. Sweet. Won't quite cover my GO train tickets for the three months I'm there for, but it's the thought that counts. (Actually it's the writing credit that counts).

Descant magazine (that highly literary quarterly that is actually more like a book than a mag) called me. They picked someone else to be their intern (someone better than me?) but they were so gosh darn impressed with my résumé and interviewee skills that they want me to work for them in some capacity. I'll call them, but these volunteer jobs are going to put me in the poor house I tell you.

I stopped by the Disney Store. There's another place I should email. What once housed a fabulous selection of Snow White and Mickey memorabilia, has become an outlet for over-priced baby clothing. Very disappointing.

Friday, February 17, 2006

So I dreamt I went back to the call centre, to earn some extra cash I guess. Only there were no chairs left on the floor do I had to sit on the toilet. The room with the toilet also had a photocopier. I was going to go to the washroom but people kept coming in to use the photocopier. I wasn't embarrassed that they would see me pee, more worried they would find out I was going to the washroom instead of taking calls.

I also dreamt something about a sandwich, but I can't quite remember what.

"To see a toilet in your dream, symbolizes a release of emotions or getting rid of something in your life that is useless." Perhaps the useless thing is working in the call centre in the first place.

"To see or use a copier in your dream, represents your lack of originality and tendency to copy other's ideas/beliefs. You need to start thinking things through for yourself. Alternatively, it may indicate a desire to spread some idea and circulate the word out. " I'd like to think I'm pretty original...but maybe the photocopier and everyone using it does represent following the crowd or something.

"To see or dream that you are a salesperson, suggests that there is something you need to include in your life." I suppose a call centre agent is a salesperson, but does that mean I need to include something in my life, or am I just dreaming about my old work because I was working on my resume yesterday?

"To see or hear a telephone in your dream, signifies a message from your unconscious or some sort of telepathic communication. You may be forced to confront issues which you have tried to avoid. " Clearly someone is trying to communicate with me telepathically, probably a Texan with bad debt.

"To dream that you are looking for a job, suggests that you are unfulfilled and feeling frustrated in your current phase of your life.

To dream about your current job, represents your satisfaction and contentment in the way things are going in your life. It may also mean that there is something or some task that must be done at once." Not sure which of these applies. I wasn't exactly looking for a job in the dream I just went back to my old job. There were aspects of it: the photocopier, the telephone, that might have come from the office where I intern. Maybe am "satisfied and content" with my job but wish that they would pay me.

"To see a sandwich in your dream, suggests that a lot of pressure and stress is being put on you. It also reflects your ability to do two things at once. However, sometimes a sandwich is just a sandwich." I wish I could remember the sandwich bit, maybe it was so stressful I blocked it out.

Monday, February 13, 2006

This is my second day of Interning and I actually got to fact-check an article. This basically involves calling people and making sure they said what the author said they said. While this sounds like a painful operation for someone as shy as me, it ended up being pleasant enough and I was able to get through it without incident. I did get a little thrill when I found an error in an article, and it was for something I almost didn't check! The author made mention of helping kids with a project on "1850s Upper Canada". However, according to my best friend the internet, in 1840 Upper and Lower Canada combined to form the province of Canada and from that time until Confederation (1867), it was called "Canada West". I sure saved a lot of mail from angry Today's Parent readers on that one!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

So yesterday was my first day interning at Today's Parent. It was full of all the great first day stuff, getting lost in the building, forgetting where the washroom is, asking stupid questions, that sort of thing. Today's Parent is in the Roger's building, this big fancy glass building with a green roof, it is connected to another building by way of a bridge, for no other reason than added flair.

There are umpteen other magazines in the building. Today's Parent is on the same floor with a bunch of women's magazines, including Chateleine and Lou Lou. It's either the nature of the business or of the magazine itself, but there is not one guy to be seen in the entire office, which is actually kind of nice. The trouble with the offices is that they are all identical, and being a person with poor directional sense, who relies on landmarks to get around, I was a tad curfuffeled. I found out that not only are all the offices on the same floor identical, all the individual floors are identical as well. I got of on the wrong floor by mistake and couldn't tell until I asked someone where Today's Parent was and they gave me the stupid look.

All in all I'd say it was a pretty good day. There was a story meeting in the morning and though I didn't have anything to contribute, I found it interesting. Then Andrea, the editor that hired me, showed me how the magazine does its fact-checking. I gather this is what I'll be doing most of the time, which is good because it's a real magazine like job and I heard horror stories about interns being made to fetch coffee and other slave labour. Anywho, fact-checking is basically what it sounds like, you check to make sure the facts in an article are correct. This involves marking all the facts, including quotes, calling people and asking them "would you say that blah blah blah is true?" and, if they say no, calling the author and asking "so-and-so denies blah blah blah is true, would you mind checking your research just to make sure?" This will obviously require a little finesse on my part. (ie: not calling writers up and saying "You're wrong!") Unfortunately, the article she was going to get me to start on was corrupted for some reason so she's going to print it out at home and I'll do it Monday. Once I get into it I will actually be useful, which is nice.

Andrea had to leave early and told me that there was no point in me sticking around with nothin to do, so I left at around 2:30.

Friday, February 03, 2006

I know what you're thinking. That the creator of such Flash cartoon classics as Mr. Skinny and Girlie Girl Gets a Futon must already be a Flash genius. Alas, it is not so, for although I have become quite proficient at drawing simple characters, moving them uselessly about the screen, and adding flair with the odd (and even more useless) shape tween, I do not know even the most basic ActionScript. ActionScript being the code that one uses to make flash things actually do stuff, like in a game, or a webpage with buttons...that sort of thing.

So I moseyed over to Actionscripts.org and went through some tutorials. I figured that if I did this all day then by the end of it I'd have the know-how to create an über-complicated Flashtravaganza, like a game or something. After a few hours of this I haven't yet reached my goal. However I did create this clock.